{"title":"Blackman Agency Investigations","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"blackman-s-coffin-book-mark-de-castrique-9781590586228","title":"Blackman's Coffin","description":"Sam Blackman is an angry man. A Chief Warrant Officer in the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the U.S. military, he lost a leg in Iraq. His outspoken criticism of his medical treatment resulted in his transfer to the Veteran's Hospital in Asheville, NC. Disillusioned with the military, grieving over the recent death of his parents, and at odds with his brother, Sam's life is in shambles. Then an ex-marine and fellow amputee named Tikima Robertson walks into his hospital room.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Tikima hints she has an opportunity for Sam to use his investigative skills-if he can stop feeling sorry for himself. But before she can return, Tikima is murdered, her body found floating in the French Broad River. Sam was the last person to see her alive.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Tikima's sister, Nakayla, brings Sam a journal she finds in Tikima's apartment. A note stuck to the inside cover reads \"For Sam Blackman.\" The volume dates to 1919 and contains the entries of a twelve-year-old boy who accompanies his father, a white funeral director, as they help a black man, Elijah Robertson, transport his deceased relative from Asheville to a small family plot in Georgia.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The link to the present? Nearly 90 years ago, Elijah's body was also found in the French Broad River, a crime foreshadowing the death of his great-great-granddaughter Tikima.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Sam and Nakayla must delve into Asheville's rich history, the legacy of the Vanderbilts at the Biltmore estate, and of author Tom Wolfe to uncover the murderous truth.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49889671184657,"sku":"CIN1590586220G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50096467640593,"sku":"CIN1590586220A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1590586220.jpg?v=1751309581"},{"product_id":"murder-in-rat-alley-book-mark-de-castrique-9781492699392","title":"Murder in Rat Alley","description":"In this unusual spin on the classic spy novel, murder strikes from our wartime pasts… Iraq War veteran Sam Blackman with his prosthetic leg and his no-nonsense private eye partner Nakayla Robertson love their investigations which always carry a thread from the past—and they love each other. An interracial couple in the new South, the Asheville, NC, pair has surrounded themselves with a terrific support team including an unorthodox lawyer and a veteran cop. They deploy humor both to bind them together and to deflect insults. Plus, it helps deal with the tragedies their work uncovers. Such a tragedy interrupts a meeting between the PIs and the neighboring law office when a body is unearthed from the grounds of the nearby Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. During the Cold War it monitored developing space programs. Today it plays a vital role gathering weather and climate data. The body has been in the ground a long time. Why would its discovery spark off a new murder in Asheville's mountain music scene, the victim found amid the garbage of dark, dank Rat Alley? She was the fiancée of the man murdered long ago. But surely this case is more than a domestic drama playing out over time…. The Blackman Agency Investigations excel at merging past and present, bringing little-known history to light, and are perfect for fans of James Lee Burke, Stephen Mack Jones, Margaret Maron, and Robert B. Parker.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50282285760785,"sku":"CIN149269939XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51609934856465,"sku":"CIN149269939XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53575639564561,"sku":"CIN149269939XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/149269939X.jpg?v=1751020708"},{"product_id":"fatal-scores-book-mark-de-castrique-9781464213151","title":"Fatal Scores","description":"A river gives up its dead, but not its secrets... Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson, private investigators in Asheville, North Carolina, are hired when a local environmentalist dies while monitoring water quality in the nearby Pigeon River. With no soil or water samples found near the body, his widow doesn't believe his death was an accident. In fact, witnesses reported a public altercation between the environmentalist and local mill heir Luke Kirkpatrick just two days prior. Could Luke or his father, Ted, have committed murder to secure their proposed business expansion? Meanwhile, preparations for a local festival suffer violent setbacks, and the investigators worry the events are related. Can Sam and Nakayla identify the killer and serve justice before Asheville is threatened once again? The eighth book featuring Private Investigators Blackman and Robertson, Fatal Scores, is a timely mystery perfect for fans private eyes and anyone with a taste for regional history. Blackman Agency Investigations: Blackman's Coffin The Fitzgerald Ruse  The Sandburg Connection Murder in Passing","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50375464747281,"sku":"CIN1464213151G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1464213151.jpg?v=1750988207"},{"product_id":"murder-in-rat-alley-book-mark-de-castrique-9781492699385","title":"Murder in Rat Alley","description":"Tucked away in the mountains of North Carolina lies a remnant of one of the greatest scientific achievements of the twentieth century-putting a man on the moon. This isolated site exists today as the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute.\u003cbr\u003e But past and present collide when skeletal remains are unearthed on the complex, and DNA testing confirms the identity of a scientist who disappeared during the Apollo 15 mission. The niece of the murdered man implores Asheville detectives Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson to take the case.\u003cbr\u003e As Sam and Nakayla dig into the events of the past, they discover the trail leads to a murder in Asheville's Rat Alley, proving that a killer from the past still stalks the present. And Sam and Nakayla now top the assassin's list.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50385739022609,"sku":"CIN1492699381G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1492699381.jpg?v=1750758682"},{"product_id":"hidden-scars-book-mark-de-castrique-9781464208966","title":"Hidden Scars","description":"2018 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award nominee\u003cbr\u003e \"With its strong sense of place, depiction of racial tension that still lingers in the new South, and appealing sleuths, de Castrique's well-plotted mystery is a winner.\" -Library Journal\u003cbr\u003e When Asheville, NC, private eyes Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson are asked by an eighty-year-old client to investigate the suspicious death of her brother, they warn her there is little chance of success. Paul Weaver died nearly seventy years earlier. The only documentation she has is the sole surviving copy of a coroner's report stating his death was caused by an accidental fall while hiking.\u003cbr\u003e There's a red flag- local son Weaver knew every inch of the mountain trails. The returning World War II veteran had enrolled at Black Mountain College, a liberal local school with an international reputation for innovation, thanks to its stellar faculty and advisers like Buckminster Fuller and Albert Einstein. The college of the 1940s is currently being portrayed in a film being shot on the site of its former location. The plot is based on a book by a local author. The research behind both may provide a lead in the Weaver case.\u003cbr\u003e One is drawn from movie crew member Harlan Beale, an octogenarian mountaineer who knew Weaver. In a late-night voice message, Beale tells Sam he's found something to show him. Then Beale is discovered dead in the Black Mountain College Museum. His murder turns the cold case white hot. When a second killing follows, the question becomes how to separate dark doings in the present from dark days and hidden scars of the post-war past. In typical de Castrique fashion, the answers aren't what you expect.\u003cbr\u003e No-nonsense Nakayla and veteran Sam with his prosthetic leg love their investigations which always carry a thread from the past, and love each other. An interracial couple in the South, even the new South around Asheville, they've surrounded themselves with a terrific support team including an unorthodox lawyer and a veteran cop, and use humor both to bind them all together and to deflect insults. 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The boys' parents were killed in a courtroom shootout where Sam was the key witness against the twins' father.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The charity event, a nighttime ghost tour of the legendary haunted sites of Asheville, North Carolina, seems harmless enough. Sam only has to tell the story of a grief-stricken woman who hanged herself from an old, arched stone bridge. \"Helen, come forth!\" he cries. Sam and his tour-goers expect the actress playing Helen's ghost to walk toward them from the bridge's dark recesses. Instead, her body tumbles from overhead and dangles at the end of a noose. Someone has reenacted the legend with deadly authenticity.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When a second murder mimics another old ghost tale, the police fear a macabre serial killer is on the prowl. But the case isn't Sam's to solve. Then, a tidal wave of evidence begins to point to one man-Sam's friend, defense attorney Hewitt Donaldson. Sam and Nakayla, firmly believing in Donaldson's innocence, must not only prove it, but halt a murderer seemingly bent on retribution. Does the killer's motivation rise from the present, or is Team Donaldson dealing with some specter from the past?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50423129374993,"sku":"CIN1464204748G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423260082449,"sku":"CIN1464204748VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1464204748.jpg?v=1751052981"},{"product_id":"the-fitzgerald-ruse-book-mark-de-castrique-9781590588048","title":"The The Fitzgerald Ruse","description":"Former Chief Warrant Officer Sam Blackman, a disabled veteran, opens a detective agency. His first client: an elderly woman who wants Sam to right a wrong she committed 70 years ago--stealing a manuscript from F. 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Then Marsha Montgomery comes to Asheville asking Sam and Nakayla to investigate a 45-year-old burglary at her mother's home. Someone stole a rifle and a photograph of Marsha's mother, grandmother, and great grandmother taken in 1932 by renowned photographer Doris Ulmann. The site of the photograph is The Kingdom of the Happy Land. Marsha's visit is no coincidence. Sam's being played. But why? When Marsha's 85-year-old mother Lucille is arrested for murder, Sam knows there is something amiss. Is the skeleton that of Jimmy Lang, Lucille's lover and Martha's father, a white man who disappeared in 1967? It appears that Jimmy had been willing to walk away from a budding family empire to marry Lucille. So why had Lucille, who is black, refused to marry him? Did others stand to benefit from Jimmy's disappearance? A veil of betrayal and deceit hides a killer desperate to protect a dark secret, and no one, not even Sam, is safe from the deadly consequences of a murder in passing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50510924054801,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50510925168913,"sku":"CIN1464201498G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53266660327697,"sku":"CIN1464201498A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1464201498.jpg?v=1750956329"},{"product_id":"the-sandburg-connection-book-mark-de-castrique-9781590589434","title":"The The Sandburg Connection","description":"It was only a simple, routine assignment for private investigator Sam Blackman and his partner, Nakayla Robertson: follow a history professor, who is suing a spinal surgeon for malpractice, and catch her in physical activities that undercut her claim. When the professor, Janice Wainwright, visits Connemara, the home of the poet Carl Sandburg, in Flat Rock, North Carolina, and climbs the arduous trail to the top of Glassy Mountain, Sam believes he has the evidence he needs to wrap up the case--until he finds the woman semiconscious and bleeding on the mountain's granite outcrop. Her final words were It's the Sandburg verses. The Sandburg verses. As the first person to discover the dying woman, Sam becomes the prime suspect. Now the case is personal. An autopsy reveals painkillers in her blood and solid proof of the surgeon's errors, and Sam is left with haunting questions: Why did this suffering woman endure the climb to the mountaintop? Did she stumble and fall or did someone cause her death? Then a break-in at the Wainwright farmhouse and the theft of Sandburg volumes convince Sam that someone is seeking information worth killing for. 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Sam and Nakayla must navigate a convoluted trail of historical facts and mountain legends to arrive at the truth--a truth that Carl Sandburg never knew he possessed--and a treasure to be had for a song.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51326394827025,"sku":"CIN1590589432VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51334753255697,"sku":"CIN1590589432G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1590589432.jpg?v=1750992084"},{"product_id":"hidden-scars-book-mark-de-castrique-9781464208942","title":"Hidden Scars","description":"\u003cp\u003e2018 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award nominee\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"With its strong sense of place, depiction of racial tension that still lingers in the new South, and appealing sleuths, de Castrique's well-plotted mystery is a winner.\" --Library Journal\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen Asheville, NC, private eyes Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson are asked by an eighty-year-old client to investigate the suspicious death of her brother, they warn her there is little chance of success. 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